Tag: Production

Topsoe has made a number of changes to its board. Kim Saaby Hedegaard has been appointed as the company’s new Executive Vice President, Power-to-X. Hedegaard has served as interim Head of Power-to-X since May 2022. Before that, he held the position as Chief Operations Officer (COO). He joined Topsoe in 1999 and has since held various leadership positions within engineering, technology, and sales. Since 2017, he was responsible for Catalyst Production and Technology globally. He holds a MSc in chemical engineering from the Technical University of Denmark. He is replaced as COO by Andreas Bruun Jørgensen.

Fischer-Tropsch technology has long offered alternative production routes to synthetic fuels, but has struggled to make a use case outside of some niche applications. Could the greening of the chemical industry offer another way forward for the technology?

Catalysts are of crucial importance in a number of chemical processes and hence, their quality has a direct impact on the efficiency and operating costs of chemical plants. This refers especially to ammonia production, since this process is energy-consuming.

Maersk has ordered six more 17,000 teu (twenty-foot equivalent unit) container ships capable of running on methanol from Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI). The order brings Maersk’s total order book of dual-fuel vessels capable of running on methanol to 19. Maersk said the new ships will replace existing tonnage in its fleet when they’re delivered in 2025. When all 19 vessels on order join the fleet and replace older tonnage, CO2 savings will be around 2.3 million t/a, according to Maersk. Maersk has committed itself to renewable methanol as a pathway to zero emissions shipping. Its first vessels are due for delivery from Q1 2024. The company has also signed several green methanol fuel supply agreements and joined a partnership to create the first e-methanol plant in Southeast Asia. Maersk is also working with Japanese trading house Mitsui and the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), to jointly conduct a detailed feasibility study of methanol bunkering logistics in Singapore.

Maire Tecnimont subsidiary MyRechemical has been awarded a basic engineering contract for a waste to methanol and hydrogen plant to be located in Empoli, Tuscany. The scope of work includes the basic engineering design of the plant and the provision of necessary documentation to start the plant’s public authorisation process with the Tuscany region. The basic engineering phase is expected to be completed by the end of 2022. Once completed, the plant will process 256,000 t/a of non-recyclable waste and will produce 125,000 t/a of methanol and 1,400 t/a of hydrogen. The plant will use MyRechemical’s chemical conversion technology which allows the recovery of waste that cannot be mechanically recycled, or other types of unsortable dry waste. The carbon and hydrogen in the waste are converted via gasification into synthesis gas, which is used to produce low-carbon methanol and hydrogen.

Maire Tecnimont’s innovation and licensing company Stamicarbon has been selected as the licensor for a urea project in sub-Saharan Africa, its first license in the region. Stamicarbon will deliver the process design package for the front-end engineering and design for a 4,000 t/d urea melt and granulation plant. The urea melt plant with a pool reactor will use Stamicarbon’s MP Flash design, a melt concept with improved energy efficiency, entailing a significant reduction of steam consumption. The minimal equipment items result in a significant reduction of the footprint and the overall capital cost of the plant. Less equipment also allows for a reduction in maintenance costs and OPEX savings.

As we near the end of the third quarter of 2022, the attention of the nitrogen industry is focused on the coming northern hemisphere winter, and the prospects for higher natural gas prices as temperatures fall and power and heating demands rise. Vladimir Putin has been stoking these worries to try and force a climbdown from European countries over the sanctions that followed his invasion of Ukraine, with the flow of gas through the Nordstream 1 pipeline across the Baltic Sea gradually dwindling over the summer and finally stopping altogether at the end of August due to “technical issues” – an explanation somewhat undermined by the subsequent statement from spokesman Dmitry Peskov that gas would flow again once sanctions were eased. This is a familiar enough tactic; Russia has used gas stoppages to pressure Ukraine and Europe several times over the past two decades.

Optimisation of the nitric acid process depends on good process visualisation tailored to the specific process parameters of the plant, improvements in combustion efficiency, reduction of N2 O emissions and the optimal use of platinum group metals.

Most nitric acid is used for production of fertilizer nitrates and ammonium nitrate explosives, but it is also used in polyamides, polyurethanes and aniline dyes as well as a number of industrial processes including ore treatment. High ammonia prices have pushed nitric acid prices to record levels this year, but growth predictions remain robust.

Casale reviews urea plant revamping process schemes and successful case studies for energy savings and TOYO discusses its latest revamping technologies including application of the new generation low-pressure, energy-saving ACES21-LP™ process.